Browsed byCategory: bone broth

This is so easy, and so, so good. The only drawback is that it takes a long time, but it’s not hands-on time, just lots of waiting. It is kind of like French onion soup. I eat it as a soup on its own. My husband uses it for French dip sandwiches. It starts with homemade beef bone broth. I have been making it in a pressure cooker lately.

Ingredients:

Beef bones (5 or 6)

Onions (about 4)

Garlic (2 bulbs)

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Coarse sea salt

Roasting

The key to this recipe is roasting the bones, onion, and garlic first. I do this in the oven at 400, for 45 minute to 1 ½ hours. You can use a glass baking dish or oven-proof bowl. A bowl seems to work best for the bones. Put all the bones in a glass, oven-safe bowl and drizzle some olive oil on top (just to keep them from sticking). Slice the onions into thirds. I don’t bother peeling them. Slice the tops off the garlic bulbs. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of a glass baking dish. Put the onion and garlic in the baking dish. Roast the bones, onion and garlic. The onion and garlic will be done before the bones.

Making the Broth

Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Toss in one bulb of garlic and half of your onions. Save the rest of the onions and garlic, and the oil they roasted in, for later. Toss in the bones and the oil and fat from the bones. Add some lemon juice (maybe ¼ cup), sea salt (about a handful or so), and cold water. My pressure cooker has a line that shows you how much water you can add.

Let this sit and soak for 30 minutes before starting the pressure cooker. Bring the pressure cooker up to temperature, then turn it down, or do it however your model works. Cook in pressure cooker for 90 minutes. Strain the liquid into another container, put the bones, onion and garlic back into the pressure cooker, add some more lemon juice, and cook it all again for another hour and a half. Strain the second batch and press all the juices you can out of the bones, onion, and garlic.

Discard the bones, onion and garlic (not the onion and garlic you saved for later).

If you don’t want all of the fat from the broth, put it in the fridge overnight. The fat will rise and congeal on top and you can just pull it off and toss it.

Finishing the Soup

If your broth is chilled, it will be a jiggly lump. That’s good; it means it came out right. Place about 6 cups of broth in a pot on the stove. Store the rest in the fridge or freeze it for other recipes or just to sip on. Peel the onions and toss them in the broth. Squeeze the garlic out of its shell, into the broth. Simmer, uncovered, for about an hour. It will reduce.

I make a lot of soups. It’s a great way to use up leftovers, small amounts of ingredients that aren’t really enough for other dishes, and stuff that is going to go bad soon.

I have a few basic recipes that can vary a lot depending on what I have on hand, but are based in the same main ingredients. Lately I have discovered that a couple of things dramatically improve the overall flavor of my soups from good to incredible!

The first one is homemade stock. My homemade stock doesn’t seem to have a lot of flavor when I taste it by itself, but the soups I make from it are 10 times better and less “canned” tasting than when I use a prepackaged soup base.

Second is roasting the onion and garlic. It adds a hint of sweetness and a richness to the overall flavor.

The combination of the two is just unbelievable! They do add time to the cooking process and require more planning. They only add a tiny amount of work and actual hands-on time. The benefits greatly outweigh the effort.

If you aren’t making your own bone broth (stock) you should start. Not only are the health benefits unbelievable, it is also very cheap. If you have bones as leftovers you can use them. If not you can buy bones cheap.

Making stock is easy! Throw the bones in a pot add water, a splash of vinegar to pull the minerals out of the bone, and seasonings if desired. Simmer for several hours – five hours will do, overnight is great. You can do it on the stove or in the crock pot. The easiest way is to throw the bones from your meal in after dinner and let it slow cook.

Unlike most stocks, broths, and soup bases you can buy at the store, homemade bone broth does not contain MSG and you control the sodium level. Store-bought broth and stock typically does not have all of the nutrients and health benefits of homemade.

You can use it to make soups, sauces, cook rice, or even sip it as a tea.

I recommend reading the following pages for more in-depth information on the health benefits of bones broth: